Silver Slots

[Swifty4]

Silver Slots

So this is something I was thinking about and may not be true.

Every class has a Mage, a Lock and a Spy. These three cards range from good to very good in every faction.

So what I'm wondering is, are these three slots going to become auto-includes? Will you always want to include the mage, lock and spy in every deck you make and if you do is this a good thing for the game?

 

[PandaLin]

I don't use mage, spy or lock silver on my deck and still winning games. That's the nice thing about Gwent, you can experiment and try things out. In close beta, you had aggressive decks that attack your opponent and lock their units. But you also have passive decks which just buffing your own units. My Queensguard deck use buffing silvers. I don't need card advantage or lock. Mages are good but I preferred a nice Blueboy lugos over a mage. But you should add bronze clear sky and locks if the meta get too crazy with weather and units that need to be locked

 

[zhiphius]

They are not auto includes at all, there's plenty of silver cards fighting them for slots
As a ST player i do use the mage (because useful), but i never use the spy and i don't always use the lock either.

 

[Sailears]

Most of the mages seem good to include - I like the versatility, but I rarely if ever use faction specific spies or locks (NG seems to be the only faction where the lock is too good to pass up, but I don't play NG anyway).

 

[KasumiGoto]

Every faction specific locking unit is better than Cleaver, because apart from locking they have one more special ability (varying between factions), so I see no point in using Cleaver, unless you'd need 2 locks for some reason. In ST I'm playing Ciaran Yaevinn and Ida but for example in Skellige I don't run neither Udalryk nor Donar (might try them in the future). That's because ST has a lot of ways to destroy the spy with Scorch etc., where as Skellige doesn't usually run such cards.

 

[RickMelethron]

So what I'm wondering is, are these three slots going to become auto-includes? Will you always want to include the mage, lock and spy in every deck you make and if you do is this a good thing for the game?

no, all three cards are very reliant on the meta to actually be good. mages are mostly prevalent for the use of clear skies, as silvers themselves, they aren't very good.
same thing applies to locks; if the meta is full of dwarves - which is the primary thing you're going to lock - they'll be quite good. if not, you're better off running alzurs thunder

as for spies, they are a bit of a nuance. in closed beta, the best strategy was to win round 1, stall round 2, and win round 3 with card advantage; that's why spies were so prevalent then, but in the current game i've seen few decks running them

 

[felixsylvaris]

Spies are optional i think.
Locks are also optional, since clever, leader, or other sources.
Mages... versality is good. Being able to cast board clear sky, and still have body on the field is strong. Mages are strong.
I dont think Mages are problem, since there are not much worse than any other card. 10 strenght silver is not that much.

 

[4RM3D]

While playing Gwent, I had a déjà vu about World of Warcraft vanilla (when it was just released) and WoW now.

When WoW was originally released, it had horrible class balancing and each expansion it got a little better (simply put). However, after a while, it took a turn for the worse. Each balancing attempt destroyed more and more of the uniqueness the classes, and in the end, every class was stripped and converted to an all-purpose class.

I see the same thing happening to Gwent now. Each faction is getting more and more of the same things, like the mages, spies and locks, and with every update, some uniqueness of the faction is lost (e.g. passive abilities).

While I prefer factions to be balanced, I don't want it to come at the cost of destroying their archetype, their essence.

 

[RickMelethron]

Each balancing attempt destroyed more and more of the uniqueness the classes, and in the end, every class was stripped and converted to an all-purpose class.

not really; unless you're one of the "muh pruning" folks

(i know this wasn't the core point of the comment, but i'm bored right now and there's nothing more productive for me to be doing than nitpicking on forum posts)

I see the same thing happening to Gwent now. Each faction is getting more and more of the same things, like the mages, spies and locks, and with every update, some uniqueness of the faction is lost (e.g. passive abilities).

and yet, they're gaining more and more things that make them more unique than ever. i personally prefer the uniqueness of a faction to come from their cards and archetypes rather than a passive ability that makes all of their decks feel the same

all factions had spies in closed beta, and "mages" didn't exist (they were mediocre silver cards)
as for silver locks, everyone had cleaver in the first place, so that's a counter to your point. would you rather have every faction running the same neutral card or each running their own unique card?

 

[MemeRider420]

I run a hybrid weather Monster deck and I only use a Lock in Fiend as it's a really good lock , the spy and a mage I don't really like and there are better silvers to take their spot. If you are not running NG spies deck , you really don't want to use all 3.

 

[Tir_na_Lia]

I think one of the 'lessons' of the CB is that while uniqueness is important, cornerstones of the game have to be available and spread in every deck and faction.

It's also easier to balance this way...if spies become OP, it's not such a big tragedy as long as everyone can play at least one, unlike the past.

Also I like the flavor of those cards and how they get nuanced to reflect their faction.

 

[4RM3D]

and yet, they're gaining more and more things that make them more unique than ever. i personally prefer the uniqueness of a faction to come from their cards and archetypes rather than a passive ability that makes all of their decks feel the same

The passive ability was but an example.

Dol Blathanna Protector vs Clan Dimun Pirate Captain vs Spotter
or
Reinforced Ballista vs War Longship vs Mangonel

They are just isolated examples. I don't want to go to deep into this because that would move too far away from the OP.

as for silver locks, everyone had cleaver in the first place, so that's a counter to your point. would you rather have every faction running the same neutral card or each running their own unique card?

Every faction running the same neutral card. Why? Because if locking is not a faction specific mechanic, then just make it neutral and use the other cards for faction specific things. Though, you can mix things up. Weather is a neutral mechanic, but Monsters do have more options. Locking could be a neutral mechanic and ST or NG could have an extra locking card.

As for the spies, in closed beta there was more diversity between them, i.e. Yaevinn could damage opponents and Monsters had a special one. Finally, the worst offenders are the mages, the all-round MacGyver toolkit.

 

[RickMelethron]

Every faction running the same neutral card. Why?

so everyone running the same card = more faction diversity?
don't understand this logic in the least...

Because if locking is not a faction specific mechanic, then just make it neutral and use the other cards for faction specific things

maybe the idea was to have faction specific locks serve alternative purposes... like they currently do

 

[4RM3D]

so everyone running the same card = more faction diversity?

Not everyone is running locks. No card should become essential for every archetype.

 

[Michelazz]

Marguarita and fiend are too good as a lock cards not to be included in almost every deck. Especially marguarita ( It locks and resets a unit) How good is that!

 

[Tschjo]

Marguarita and fiend are too good as a lock cards not to be included in almost every deck. Especially marguarita ( It locks and resets a unit) How good is that!

Its expecially good when you get to heal your opponents Morkvarg back to full health HOW GOOD IS THAT!?! I would argue shes by FAR the weakest of all the lockers.

In short OP i think yes they are all auto includes and your deck will always be better with them. Playing a clear sky spell instead of the mage for example is madness. Then a lot of decks can only or just way more efficently be dealt with with locks.
The spys you need to fight you playing to fast and they are also the most efficent thing to play against velemehtthehtet the dragon that kills everything.

 

[Michelazz]

Tschjo you are taking a situational play that is rarely used like that. An 8 pt morlvarg that you manager to damaged for 3 or 4 pts than with a reset get back his strength is not abig deal but a hugely buffed brigade ( 26 pts) with a resilience will go back to 6 and lose the resilience!

 

[Tschjo]

I know that and i was exaggerating. She is still a must run card and buffing your opponents units back up is the right thing to do regardless quite often. Still a card with a potential downside is still far worse than cards that dont have that. Would be nice if the reset and lock would have different targets or something.